Coast Range Merry Maker

Formerly brewed at Coast Range Brewing Co.
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Gilroy, California USA

It’s still 2004 (or at least the bottle says the hops are). Time warp. Really nice piney hop aroma. Ruby coppery color, a bit like Pete’s Wicked (current 2007 version). LIghe beige head that sticks. Light lacing. Starts with piney evergreen, some malty sweetness dances around the edge, and then the hops kick that stuff right out of the mouth. It’s hop. Hard to believe it’s only 56 IBU. It’s really, really good. The mouthfeel is medium, and the finish is tangy, piney bitter. It may get better than this, but not often. The preservative quality of hops could not be better proved. Two or three years old and pasteurized. It’s fresh.

Pale red color, medium head, with a hoppy aroma. Slightly roasted malts, aggressively hopped. Hoppy and bitter, yet malty with some sweetness. Good flavor. Nice balance of hops to malts. Finish is clean and crisp. Aftertaste is bitter, with some hoppyness.

Bomber poured a hazy reddish copper with an amber head. Aromas of grass, oranges, and carmel. Palate was medium bodied with a resiny feel to it. Flavors of carmel,grass, grapefruit rind with a pleasantly bitter, dry finish.

Bottle. Reddish amber color with a frothy white head. Nice hoppy aroma. Nice hop flavor with some malt backing. Lingering hopiness. I agree with jazz88 that it’s makes you think of a double IPA. Not bad. Could use just a hint more alcohol presence (but then I’m trying to push it to really be a double IPA).

(22 oz bottle: $2.99 at BevMo in Gilroy, CA) I long ago gave up hope that I’d get to try this unless Coast Range brewed another holiday batch, but miraculously, a bottle was procured. According to the label, this was bottled for the 2004 holiday season, so that puts it at roughly 18 months of age, and thus I expected the hops of this IPA to be pretty much dead, with possible signs of oxidation. Wrong on both accounts! The classic West Coast hoppiness is citrusy and moderately bitter, perhaps even a bit spicy. The solid malt base is moderately sweet, a bit grainy, but has enough muscle to balance the hops. Medium bodied with good carbonation, and like most Coast Range beers, it has that typical dusty and chalky mouthfeel and flavor. Dark ruddy-amber color shows moderate haze. Light-tan head, 1.5 inches tall, slowly settles to a thinning layer with a wide ring. Classic ringed lacing -- 5 of ’em to be exact -- is quite the sight to behold. One can only hope Coast Range will brew (and bottle!) this again as a holiday offering. Very nice.

Bottle: Amber, small sudsy white head, spotty lacing, light carbonation.   Straight forward hoppy nose.   Decent hop bite, considering it was brewed/bottled for the 2004 Holiday season.   Very soft tea or tobacco leaves are noticable.   Average body and mouthfeel.   Lingering tobacco leaves.   Decent IPA, sturdy.   Thanks HoppedHead for sharing!

Bottle from bevmo; poured a dark orange with a beige head. Aroma of grapefruit, pine and toffee. Was a little disappointed with the flavor in this one. Not that it was bad, but not quite as good as I expected from a beer in the 85th percentile for the style. Flavor reminded me of a mellowed american strong ale. Fairly one dimensional, although the malt backpone was present at the beginning. Hops were pine and citrus. Prefer the Coast Range Farmhouse Oasthouse IPA, which is fantastic. If you can get that one do it/

Bottle. A dark reddish-orange color with an off-white head. An intense hop aroma that could have led me to believe this was a double IPA. Full bodied with a big hop flavor and bitter finish.